Festival of Writing - September

Booked my place at the Writer's Workshop Festival of Writing in York in September - my second time so I'll have a better grasp on what is going on;  will meet folks I already know and some of those who were on the Self Edit course with me.

Plus six Workshops, one mini-course (with Nicola Morgan, on The Perfect Submission) and two 1:1 sessions with book agents.

And the following week I'll be at Bloody Scotland.

Self-Edit course - all done

And although the group - which was a huge and unanticipatedly beneficial  part of the experience - and the exercises and the feedback will remain accessible for ever, to be continued for as long as we want it to - is still functioning; the input of Debi Alper as tutor is no more.  Emma Darwin's vast store of common-sense advice and writing wisdom can, of course, be accessed via 'This Itch of Writing'

So there is a certain bereftness, a sadness that it's all over.  And also an eagerness to put to good use what I've learned, which has been considerable.

And I can thoroughly recommend the course as a way  to proceed once you've got that ms to the point where you think it might be done:  http://www.writersworkshop.co.uk/Self-Editing.html

Self-editing ... six weeks of it.

Tomorrow I start a six-week online Self-editing your novel course - http://www.writersworkshop.co.uk/Self-Editing.html

It's taken me three years to realise (accept) that I need help.  Not entirely arrogance, although there's a bit of 'shouldn't my book be all my own work?, and I have been aware of each succeeding book that I am improving.
I probably wouldn't have been so enthusiastic either had I not already come across Emma Darwin and her superb and empowering'This Itch of Writing' blog, and done a couple of workshops with Debi Alper at last September's Festival of Writers, run by the folks who organise the courses.
I did, of course, read one novel by each of them - they certainly practice what I hope they'll preach.

Phew.

At just over ninety thousand words I feel able to declare what began life as 'Susannah Elphinstone' and what is currently 'Longest shadows reach' finished.  By which I mean after many many re-readings and writings I think it is, apart from minor tweaks, finished.

It is the follow up to what was .'Not wanted on voyage' and became 'A step so grave' which I temporarily abandoned after submitting it to an agent and a book doctor at York's Festival of Writing in September. This had undergone three major re-writes and I did not then have the stamina for an immediate fourth one.

I also have 'Making good' awaiting a final edit - the fourth and final on in the Bridie and Sean saga.

My intention is to sign up for the six week  'Self editing your novel', course run by the Writers Workshop which begins January 7th, using 'Longer shadows reach'  but before that I intend to play a bit more with the cover design.